Formula One teams are still allowed to mount mirrors on the Halo but the FIA will not permit the style of design used by Ferrari at the Spanish Grand Prix.
The dispute over Ferrari’s Halo-mounted wing mirrors centred on the extent to which the team had tried to gain an aerodynamic benefit from the design.
Teams were told in an FIA technical directive earlier this year they may mount wing mirrors onto the Halo. However in a statement today the FIA declared the aerodynamic effect of such designs must be minimised.
“Whilst the FIA accepts that teams will legitimately design the mirrors, housings and mountings to minimise any negative aerodynamic effects they may cause, we believe that any aerodynamic benefits should be incidental, or at least minimal,” it said.
The FIA has told teams the mountings must “provide a meaningful structural contribution to the mounting system” and “be mounted to the lower and/or inboard surface(s) of the mirror housing.” Teams which use more than one mounting, as was the case with the design Ferrari used in Spain, may be required to demonstrate why they are needed from a structural point of view.
“As the criteria for determining the eligibility of a mounting are to some extent subjective, the FIA would be available to discuss the legality of a new design before [teams] introduce it in a race, to avoid wasting resource, time or money,” it added.
The FIA admitted its current rules around Halo-mounted mirrors are “not perfect” and it intends to revise them ahead of the 2019 F1 season.
“For the sake of clarity, the various provisions made in TD/014-18 [the technical directive permitting Halo-mounted mirrors] still apply for halo-mounted mirrors. The FIA expect to have full compliance with the present technical directive by the next race.”
“The FIA do acknowledge that the rules currently in force with regard to mirrors are not perfect, and will strive to propose a more complete set of rules in terms of mirror position, mountings, visibility, etc… in the near future, with the aim to get a unanimous support for such changes for 2019.”
Ferrari continued to run the same Halo-mounted mirrors design during the last two days of testing at the Circuit de Catalunya.
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